November — December

Let’s rewind a bit since my last camino. I got home around the 20th of November, and man, was I exhausted by these two months spent on the road. I had quit my previous job because I was tired of spending my days sitting on a chair in front of a screen, and my plan was to travel for a few months or so, starting with the camino.

I did not anticipate that I would be so tired not even 3 months after having quit… All I wanted was to be some place that felt mine and rest and spend time with my friends. And yeah, true, I’ll confess that I also went home because Final Fantasy XV’s release was getting close and I just had to play this game.

But yep, I was tired. And with the cold season upon me, I started thinking about settling down. Gasp. Well, not entirely settling down; my thinking was that maybe it would be a good idea to invest some of my savings instead of blowing them all away. I had started thinking about it on the last days of my camino and it got stuck on my mind : I should buy an apartment.

But this implies taking a loan, which in turn means having a job. Again. Going back to work so soon, well… that was not the plan. But my mind was made up and it was a matter of days before I remembered about a company that I had been following for a few years, often thinking I should apply there at some point.

It was the first time I was free to go for it, so I wrote them an email. After a few exchanges, tests and interviews, I got hired. I had left paris and a good job because I wanted to do something else, pretty much anything else as long as it was not work; and barely three months later I was going back: I believe this is called irony.

January — March

Early in January, I started my new job while living between Strasbourg and Paris. That setup was meant to last the duration of my trial period, after I which I would find and buy a place. Easy peasy. But I liked my job and coworkers, and my then-girlfriend was living in Paris; I had no reasons to stay between two cities, so I moved for good at the end of March.

It didn’t took long for irony to strike again. First, I got over my idea of buying a place: Paris is way too costly to my taste and I just coudl not get around investing such an amount of money for a little flat in a city I don’t even like that much. And shortly after that, my relationship with my girlfriend fell through as well.

April — May

So I moved into a city and took a job for reasons that were no longer valid… But there was an unexpected silver lining to these black clouds: I was having a blast at my job. I just couldn’t quit. Still, being without a purpose bothered me. I need to move towards something. That’s when one friend I had met during my camino told me that she was going to do another one in France, starting in June. There was my direction!

She would be starting the walk the first of June, and my plan was to join her ten days later — I couldn’t free myself earlier. Those three weeks of hiking through France looked like what I needed. A little bit of disconnection, sprinkles of physical activity, and loads of time to reflect on what I want to do after and figure things out. Except my friend, I didn’t expect to run into many hikers or pilgrims, so the potential for distractions was very little.

At least, that was the plan.